Monday

Terrible me. I skipped the gym this weekend. PLUS I had a cheat weekend. Eli and I went to St. Louis, and  kind of splurged on eats and drinks while there. C'est la vie. St. Louis was really fun though, in case you were dying to know.

Tonight we'll be back at the gym! I'll be doing legs tonight, arms tomorrow, legs Wednesday, and arms Friday. Last time I could definitely feel my arm workout, so I'm hoping my leg workout will do the same. 

T

First Arm Workout

Tuesday was my night off from the gym (it's when Eli was off), so I started my workout last night! I had planned on doing 3 sets of 15 and 15 minutes of cardio, mostly because it was freezing and I wanted to get in and get out! I'm bad, I know. Anyway, I did the arms yesterday, and this is what I accomplished:

10 minutes on the elliptical at resistence 15

2x 15 DB benches (15lbs)

1x 15 then 1x 7 DB Shoulder (15lbs)

2x 15 skull crushers (25lbs)

2x 15 DB rows (15lbs)

1x 15 DB curls (15lbs)

1x 7 DB curls (15lbs)

My goal will be 3x 15 for the whole thing, and 15-20 minutes of cardio. For the cardio I do HIIT with 15 seconds of high intensity, 45 seconds of low intensity. It's a good way to get a quick cardio in on the nights I can't stay for long. 

Even though I didn't do as much as I had hoped I could do last night, I'm pretty proud. For one, I got out in the freezing rain and sleet to gym. It was so cold. And two, I have a set schedule and routine for the gym which makes my goals easier to set and reach! I don't know if I'll be able to get out to go tonight since there is ice everywhere at the moment. Can it just be spring already?! I like running outside when it's pretty out. However, even if I don't make it to the gym, I'll try to get in some sort of quick work out at home. 

T

Non-supporters?

 I get not everyone is concerned with their health. I mean, I can't say that I'm a total health nut, but I'm at a point in my life where I feel like I should be healthier. Mentally and physically, it will benefit me. I'm not working out because I feel like I'm fat or ugly. Would I like to lose twenty pounds? Sure! Would I love to have a toned tummy? You bet! But all in all, I want to be healthy. When I truly sat down and realized all the awful things I put in my body (Dr. Pepper was a main food group in my life, I swear), it was awful. I'm not saying I won't eat fried food (like that'd happen. I live in the South, guys. Fried food is food group here.), or burgers, or pizza anymore, but my goal is to make them treats or rareties in my diet. I like eating healthy, it makes me feel better about myself. I'm taking control and I'm changing something I don't like. I'm still shifting into the healthy habits, I'm a girl who loves pizza and cupcakes more than what is okay, but I'm trying.

With that being said, I think almost everyone has at least one friend who tries to get you to skip your work out, or eat that ice cream, or have a beer. The ones who don't support what you're doing and say, "You don't need the gym, your body is perfectly fine!" or "Oh, like you can't spare the calories." No one is ever mean about it, but the fact they encourage me to do the opposite of what I'm trying to do makes me feel bad. For example, Eli and I have cut out drinking for a now. It's not that we think it's bad, or that we do it too much, it's just that alcoholic beverages have so many calories! It's counter productive. Once we get on track with a solid schedule and eating habits, it'd be easy to reward ourselves without falling off the bandwagon, you know? But I have people say that it's silly and that we can spare the calories, or that we need to drink with them, or they'll be drinking alone. It's kind of like they are guilt tripping us without being mean. I don't like it. Not. At. All.

So what do you guys do when people say things like that to you? I try to just smile, laugh, and say, "Not tonight, ya'll!" Which is really hard because I sure love margaritas!

T

Workout Plan

Here's what I've got for the rest of February, and maybe March if it proves to be enough of a work out for that long! I've got arms, chest, back, legs, butt, and abs on here, and all the exercises can be adjusted with weights and amount of reps to make it more difficult or doable. Hopefully I can stick with it, and we'll see an improvement in my arm strength at the very least! For the push ups in the morning, I'll start by doing the max amount of regular push ups I can, and then finish with the modified push ups. 

T

Can you even do a push-up?

Last night was the first night of the P90X workout...well, it was supposed to be. Here's what actually went down:

Arrive at the gym with boyfriend. Turn on my Hulu, hop on the elliptical, and do my cardio. I went a little short on the cardio because the P90X circuit was going to require quite a bit of energy. I'm done with my cardio, and I'm feeling good! Ready for this P90X! Hah. Eli hands me the sheet that says which workouts to do like push-ups, military push-ups, reverse chin ups, etc. Not only do you have to do everything on the list, but you have to do it TWICE. Talk about a butt-kicker. Eli shows me how to do the modified pull ups to see if I can even do it...and I could barely even pull myself up with it modified! I've told ya'll how weak my arms are. Believe me, it's sad. Looking skeptical, he asks me if I can even do a "man" push-up. Let me tell you, I can do five. FIVE. And that was more than I thought I could.

 Needless to say, we agreed I should find a workout more suited to "beginners" arms. I've been looking around for something to build up strength so I can do the basics of the P90X. I'm going to put together a weekly plan for the rest of this month and maybe March depending on how quickly I progress. I'll post it as soon as I figure it out!

Have a happy Tuesday!

T

Here's the skinny

Alright, it's been a crazy couple of weeks with Valentine's Day and what not, PLUS Eli and I never found a weight training circuit that really worked for us. After cardio, we spent ten minutes just figuring out what to do next! Granted, I like working my legs (squats are my favorite!) and he loves working his triceps (which I hate with a passion). We've also had a hard time figuring out leg workouts for him to do with his bad knee, so we've basically been pussyfooting around after the cardio. Those nights are over, tonight we are going to start the workouts given with the P90X! I'm a little scared, I can't lie. I'm a big pansy when it comes to anything to do with my arms. This weekend we took our measurements and our "before" pictures, and we will re-measure in a month (probably around March 15). I'm making it a goal to post a couple times a week because I really feel like having a blog/journal/etc to hold you accountable helps! If I have my workout buddy AND a journal, well, I'll be unstoppable. ;D

T

Food Diaries

Today Eli and I didn't go to the gym because he was off work, but tomorrow we'll be back to workin'! We were going to get our grocery shopping done so we can get started making our healthy lunches and snacks for the week, but we decided the weekend would be a more opportune time to get it all organized. We did, however, go to Walmart and buy small notebooks to keep track of what we eat. Actually, just Eli was going to do it, then he bought me one, too. He said that if we have to write down what we are eating and face it, we might feel guilty and not eat it. Now we are going to check each other's notebooks at the end of the week to encourage us to eat clean. Let's hope it helps! 

Off topic, we watched Warm Bodies today, and it was lovely.

T